Myanmar – SeaDemon Says

February 24, 2021

PATI: Kebajikan Bermula Di Rumah Sendiri

Kapal-kapal Tentera Laut Myanmar yang digunakan dalam misi membawa pulang PATI Myanmar semalam. Dari kiri: kapal sokongan pelbagai guna UMS Moattama, kapal friget UMS Sin Phyu Shin, dan kapal hospital UMS Thanlwin

Kebajikan bermula di rumah sendiri. Ungkapan tersebut mula digunakan oleh seorang ahli fasafah Inggeris bernama John Wycliffe pada tahun 1382. Namun, konsep tersebut wujud dalam agama-agama utama dunia. Dalam Islam, sebuah hadis daripada Abu Hurairah R.A, Nabi S.A.W telah bersabda yang bermaksud: “Dan dinar (harta) yang kamu belanjakan di jalan Allah dan dinar yang kamu berikan kepada hamba (untuk membebaskan) dan dinar yang kamu sedekahkan kepada orang miskin serta dinar yang kamu sedekahkan kepada keluargamu. Maka, yang paling besar ganjaran pahalanya adalah yang kamu sedekahkan kepada keluargamu.” (Hadis riwayat Muslim No. 9855).

Dalam kitab Injil King James, 1611 pula disebut: “Sekiranya ada yang berbelanja bukan untuk keluarganya sendiri, terutamanya yang tinggal di rumahnya sendiri, dia telah membelakangkan agamanya, dan adalah lebih teruk dari yang kafir.” (1 Timothy 5:8).

PENGHANTARAN PULANG PATI MYANMAR

Semalam, tiga buah kapal tentera laut Myanmar telah belayar dari Pangkalan TLDM Lumut membawa 1,086 orang pendatang asing tanpa izin Myanmar. Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia (JIM) dalah suatu kenyataan berkata kesemua 1,086 warga Myanmar yang dihantar pulang tersebut adalah merupakan PATI dan tidak ada di kalangan mereka yang merupakan pelarian Rohingya atau pencari suaka. Kesemua mereka telah bersetuju untuk pulang secara sukarela dan tidak dipaksa oleh mana-mana pihak.

Penghantaran PATI Myanmar ini adalah merupakan sebahagian dari proses penghantaran PATI berterusan yang diusahakan oleh JIM.

Berikutan penghantaran pulang PATI Myanmar, NGO-NGO yang memperjuangkan hak asasi manusia mula berbunyi kerana mendakwa ada terdapat pelarian Rohingya dan pemegang kad UNHCR di kalangan PATI Myanmar tersebut. Satu perintah mahkamah juga telah diperolehi pada hari pelayaran untuk memaksa kerajaan menghentikan sementara penghantaran pulang PATI Myanmar tersebut sehingga menerima arahan mahkamah selanjutnya.

Masalahnya ialah, jam berapa perintah mahkamah tersebut diperolehi dan pada pukul berapa pula perintah tersebut diterima oleh pihak JIM? Apa yang NGO-NGO ini mahu JIM lakukan sekiranya PATI tersebut telah diserahkan kepada pihak berkuasa Myanmar dan telahpun menaiki kapal-kapal perang tersebut? Sebaik mereka jejakkan kaki ke atas kapal-kapal tersebut, mereka telah pun berada di bawah bidang kuasa Myanmar dan bukan lagi Malaysia. Pada ketika tersebut, hanya peperangan boleh menghalang pelayaran kapal-kapal tentera laut Myanmar.

REKALIBRASI PATI

Pada tahun 2019, seramai 192,260 orang PATI yang telah tampil untuk menyertai program ‘Back For Good.’ Jumlah kompaun yang telah diperolehi kerajaan ialah sebanyak RM134.6 juta. Dalam tahun 2020 pula, setakat 2 November 2020 JIM telah membuat pengusiran terkumpul Pendatang Asing Tanpa Izin (PATI) seramai 30,452 orang. Jumlah ini adalah jauh kurangnya berbanding pada tahun 2019 kerana penutupan sempadan antarabangsa akibat pandemik COVID-19.

Justeru, kerajaan memperkenalkan program rekalibrasi PATI yang memberi PATI peluang untuk bekerja di Malaysia dengan sah. Program ini berbeza dengan program-program pemutihan PATI yang dijalankan sebelum ini kerana majikan hanya perlu berinteraksi dengan JIM dan bukan lagi melalui pihak ketiga untuk mengurangkan kebarangkalian berlakunya jenayah rasuah.

PATI yang ada dalam depoh-depoh tahanan Imigresen boleh memilih untuk menyertai program rekalibrasi ini ataupun pulang ke negara asal masing-masing. Setakat 13 November 2020, terdapat 20,000 orang PATI yang ditahan di depoh-depoh tahanan Imigresen.

KOS MENAHAN PATI

Menahan 20,000 orang PATI bukanlah sesuatu yang murah. Mengikut kiraan, kerajaan membelanjakan sebanyak RM800,000 sehari untuk memberi mereka makan. Ini bermakna sekiranya tempoh tiga hingga empat bulan diperlukan sehingga mereka dihantar pulang, rakyat menanggung sebanyak RM96 juta. Ini tidak termasuk kos-kos lain seperti utiliti (elektrik dan air), penyelenggaraan bangunan kompleks tahanan. Di era pandemik ini pula, kos calitan saringan COVID-19 dianggarkan sekitar RM300 seorang sekali calitan. Ini menjadikan kos calitan seorang sebanyak RM900 atau RM18 juta untuk kesemua 20,000 PATI dalam tahanan. Sekali lagi, ini tidak termasuk kos rawatan bagi mereka yang bukan sahaja menghidap penyakit COVID-19, tetapi lain-lain sakit yang memerlukan rawatan. Maka, jumlah kos yang ditanggung oleh kita semua, rakyat Malaysia, untuk menahan 20,000 orang PATI dan memberi makan serta ujian saringan COVID-19 sebanyak RM114 juta, tidak termasuk kos rawatan, utiliti, senggaraan dan lain-lain.

Kalau kita pergi balik kepada konsep Islam dan Kristian mengenai kebajikan yang sepatutnya bermula di rumah, RM114 juta boleh digunakan untuk menyaring seramai 380,000 orang rakyat Malaysia untuk penyakit COVID-19. Dalam konteks vaksin HPV yang berharga RM600 di hospital-hospital swasta yang disuntik secara percuma oleh Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia untuk mengekang barah serviks, seramai 190,000 orang wanita rakyat Malaysia dapat diselamatkan dari menghidap barah serviks. RM114 juta juga bersamaan dengan 950 unit rumah kos rendah di Kuala Lumpur.

Berbalik kepada 1,086 orang yang dihantar pulang ke Myanmar semalam, kita rakyat Malaysia tidak perlu lagi menanggung sebanyak RM5,212,800 kos makanan untuk empat bulan, RM36,000 kos calitan ujian saringan COVID-19. Sebaliknya kos tersebut boleh digunakan untuk memberi tiga kali saringan untuk 5,832 orang rakyat Malaysia atau menyuntik vaksin HPV kepada 8,748 wanita rakyat Malaysia dan menyelamatkan nyawa mereka.

KESIMPULAN

Kita sememangnya bersimpati dengan pelarian yang terpaksa tinggalkan negara mereka demi keselamatan dan kelangsungan hidup. Tetapi, kita perlu berpada-pada dalam simpati yang ditunjukkan. Bukanlah sesuatu yang menghairankan sekiranya ada di kalangan PATI Myanmar yang dihantar balik ini sendiri dengan secara sukarela memohon untuk pulang ke negara asal mereka.

Pengalaman Malaysia menerima seramai 250,000 orang pelarian Vietnam bermula bulan Mei 1975, sebulan setelah jatuhnya Saigon ke tangan Vietnam Utara adalah pengalaman yang amat pahit sekali. Malaysia terpaksa menanggung bukan sahaja pelarian-pelarian tersebut serta jenayah berat dan masalah sosial yang dilakukan oleh pelarian-pelarian tersebut, tetapi juga kecaman hebat oleh negara-negara barat yang cakap tidak serupa bikin. Beban ini telah Malaysia tanggung selama 30 tahun sebelum saki-baki pelarian akhirnya diterima oleh negara-negara tersebut dengan tidak rela. Dari jumlah tersebut, seramai 9,000 orang telah secara sukarela minta untuk pulang ke Vietnam yang mempunyai sistem politik yang tidak mereka kenali.

Kita kena ambil kira juga takrif pelarian dan pencari suaka. Apabila seorang itu lari dari negara sendiri akibat ditindas ke kem-kem pelarian di Bangladesh, maka dia adalah seorang pelarian. Apabila dia melarikan diri dari Bangladesh untuk datang ke Malaysia, dia bukan lagi pelarian yang melarikan diri dari ditindas. Sebaliknya dia menjadi seorang PATI yang cuba untuk masuk ke negara ini dengan cara haram.

Kos yang tinggi yang perlu ditanggung untuk menampung kehidupan PATI dalam tahanan juga adalah tidak adil kepada rakyat Malaysia. Bagaimana NGO-NGO yang sering menyalahkan kerajaan dalam hal-hal berkaitan dengan PATI dan pelarian boleh mengutamakan kebajikan orang luar berbanding dengan hak rakyat negara ini sekali? Maka saya ajukan soalan ini kepada anda para pembaca: apakah hak 20,000 pendatang asing tanpa izin ini mengatasi hak dan keperluan 190,000 orang wanita rakyat Malaysia yang berkemungkinan menghadapi barah serviks, atau 380,000 orang rakyat Malaysia yang memerlukan saringan COVID-19, atau 950 buah keluarga miskin rakyat Malaysia yang memerlukan rumah?

Siapa yang anda sokong? NGO-NGO yang memperjuangkan hak PATI untuk ditanggung oleh kita, atau rancangan kerajaan untuk terus menghantar PATI pulang ke negara asal?

Tepuk dada, tanya selera.

July 1, 2017July 1, 2017

Malaysia’s Efforts To Combat Human Trafficking Recognised

Malaysia has been taken off the US Human Trafficking Watchlist after its position in the watchlist has improved to Tier-2 (pic courtest of Fact Retriever)

Slavery has been around since the beginning of time. Up until the introduction of the English Common Law in the Malay States, those who can no longer afford to pay taxes entered bondage slavery to keep their daily bread. Such was the time when slavery was almost all about labour exploitation.

And then the British brought in workers from Southern China and India to toil the tin mines and rubber plantations respectively. Other than bringing in opium to keep them happy, Chinese females were also brought in to fulfill their sexual desires.

Today, there are more human slaves in the world than ever before in history. There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of human trafficking. (Skinner, E. Benjamin. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery. New York, NY: Free Press, 2008). Nearly 80% of human trafficking is for sex, and 19% is for labor exploitation (http://www.ncdsv.org/images/NCADV_HumanTraffickingFacts.pdf ).

Two years ago we were shocked by reports of Malaysia being used as a base for human traffickers with the discovery of 28 camps and 139 graves of trafficked Rohingyas in Wang Kelian.

A forensic policeman transports body bags with human remains found at the site of human trafficking camps in the jungle close the Thailand border after bringing them to a police camp near Wang Kelian in northern Malaysia May 25, 2015. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Since then the government has pulled out all stops in its efforts to eradicate the menace. Najib Razak even made a personal decision to become more involved in combatting human rights violators, especially in the realm of human trafficking. He instituted a government-wide initiative to consolidate efforts. Working with law enforcement, immigration authorities, the manufacturing and agriculture sectors and NGO’s, the Malaysian government planned and executed a comprehensive effort to combat trafficking at the local and regional levels.

The efforts have since paid off. The latest US State Department’s Trafficking In Person (TIP) report, Malaysia was elevated from a watch list to “Tier 2”, which represents significant efforts to combat human trafficking. This is as a result of the Prime Minister driving the efforts to improve in several key areas, which the US has today recognised as achieving.

Not all are thankful that the efforts made by the government, notably Klang MP Charles Santiago who calls the US State Department’s TIP report a ‘farce‘ that is ‘driven by political objectives.’

Charles Santiago is the same person who in 2015 asked then-US President Barack Obama NOT to elevate Malaysia’s TIP status from Tier 3. Nothing good should ever come to Malaysia for as long as it is not he nor his comical colleagues that are in power.

Charles Santiago asking Obama in 2015 not to make Malaysia look good to anyone

This MP is from the very same Pakatan coalition that the US Department of Justice’s suit on 1MDB-related individuals and companies are not politically-motivated because it would hit the Barisan Nasional hard, but argue that the US State Department’s TIP report as politically-driven instead because it does no good to the Pakatan’s aimless struggle.

According to the US TIP report, the Malaysian government conducted 106 risk assessments and ultimately granted six victims work visas and 12 special immigration passes for freedom of movement. An additional 28 victims were approved for freedom of movement. Prosecutions were initiated by the Malaysian government against 175 alleged traffickers, up from 38 initiated the previous year. The government convicted 35 traffickers—18 for labour trafficking and 17 for sex trafficking. There were 1,558 trafficking victims identified in Malaysia last year and 3,411 cases investigated by the Royal Malaysian Police.

The report added that the Malaysian government demonstrated increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period. During the reporting period, the Malaysian Attorney-General approved and the Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi enforced implementing regulations for the amendments to the anti-trafficking law.

As for the protection of the trafficking victims, the report says that Malaysian officials provided three NGOs with funds to conduct various programs and activities with trafficking shelter residents. They also increased its funding allocation to the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development to operate government facilities for trafficking victims.

As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development maintained seven facilities specifically to house trafficking victims, and the government allocated RM3.06 million (USD682,270) to open three new trafficking shelters.

With this elevation, Malaysia is now a regional leader in combatting human trafficking. Najib Razak will be working with regional countries, in particular the ASEAN nations, that are lagging behind, and will support efforts by Myanmar, Laos and Thailand to solve their trafficking problems.

While we should all be proud of this achievement, we should spare no effort to eradicate this inhumane trade. However, credit should be given where credit is due, and politicising issues such as this shows how selfish one can be putting his/her agenda above the nation’s.

February 24, 2017

Sever The Ties

Kang Chol without his Jaguar if he is not an Ambassador – photo courtesy of Eric Lafforgue

VX is an extremely toxic substance which has no other use except as a chemical warfare nerve agent. Whoever is exposed to the agent must wash off the agent using household bleach and lots of water, and should immediately be given diazepam, atropine and pralidoxime intramuscular injections.

For the VX nerve agent to be transported safely to KLIA2 for the attack, it would have to be in a binary form, mixed during the attack itself.

Kim Jong Nam would have died painfully from asphyxiation after suffering violent muscular contractions and diaphragm muscle paralysis.

The above is the most plausible reason for Kang Chol to have pre-empted everything by attacking the Royal Malaysian Police’s and Ministry of Health’s credibility even before the autopsy is completed.

The above would also underscore the fact that the two women from Indonesia and Vietnam are not innocent as claimed. They were seen immediately rushing off to the nearest restroom facility after the attack to wash off traces of the agent from their hands.

Malaysis has signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention that came into effect in 1997, and also the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare or commonly known as the Geneva Protocol.

The use of a chemical weapon on Malaysian soil, as well as the rude outbursts by the Ambassador of North Korea to Malaysia shows North Korea’s blatant disregard for Malaysian laws and breached Article 41(1) of the Vienna Convention for Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

Malaysia exported RM17.54 million worth of goods (mainly palm oil, rubber and medical products) to North Korea while importing only RM5.18 million (iron and steel products) from the hermit state in 2015. There are 300 North Koreans working in the coal mines of Sarawak.

As the only country in the world to have been accorded a visa-free status by North Korea, very few Malaysians have ever made use of the facility.

While Malaysia is a country that warms up to every country and values its friendship, the same cannot be said about North Korea.

Myanmar’s diplomatic relations with North Korea was once far more meaningful than the one currently enjoyed by Malaysia. However, in trying to assassinate the then-South Korean President, North Korea pushed diplomacy aside and planted a bomb in Yangon in 1983 which killed 20 people but did not kill President Chun Doo Hwan.

Myanmar broke off diplomatic relations for a decade following the attack on its soil.

Now, it has caused anger to the country it courted in 1973 and established formal diplomatic relations in 1993. There is no telling what North Korea is capable of doing to or in Malaysia given its disrespect for the laws and regulations of the latter.

I doubt that we would lose much if we were to sever our diplomatic ties with North Korea. Our trade volume is only RM25 million. Even Perlis as the smallest state in Malaysia made RM88.3 billion in GSP in 2015!

North Korea is no friend and has never valued any friendship. It should be left to live and die alone.

December 20, 2016

The Myanmar Muddle

When it comes to the Rohingya problem, Malaysia has always been voicing out her concerns regarding the issue.

In September 2012, the Royal Malaysian Navy’s KD Indera Sakti delivered 480 tonnes of aid to the Rohingyas through the port of Sittwe.

The Royal Malaysian Navy’s multi-role support ship KD Indera Sakti

At the peak of the Rohingya refugee crisis last year, only Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to temporarily shelter 7,000 Rohingya refugees. Malaysia also deployed five naval assets to provide assistance to the boat people.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak also joined thousands in a rally at a stadium in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month to show his concerns regarding the Rohingyan plight as they continue to be massacred by anti-Islamic parties in Myanmar while the Myanmarese government turn a blind eye on Rakhine.

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Anifah Aman also called for a meeting with his ASEAN counterparts to discuss the problem.

ASEAN ministers meeting on the Rohingya problem

In attendance was Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has denied the rights of the Rohingya.

New York Times report on Aung San Suu Kyii’s refusal to address the Rohingya problem

Malaysia’s stand has won the admiration of many Rohingya in Malaysia and abroad. I met several in Saudi Arabia recently who said Malaysia’s stern voice has provided some relief to the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

One of those whom I met was Shah, a hotel cleaner who has lived in Saudi Arabia for the past 19 years. Although he has never been to Malaysia, he was singing praises as news from home said that the oppression has slowed down after Malaysia voiced out its concerns.

Shah the cleaner from Myanmar who is happy with Malaysia’s stand on the Rohingya issue

It is hoped that Malaysia would be able to get other ASEAN members to find a sustainable long-term solution to the problem and continue to be the voice for the Rohingya.

November 24, 2016November 24, 2016

Negarasawan

Back in 1998 after Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from UMNO and the rakyat rose against Mahathir, I used to tell friends who were in UMNO that it was wrong to burn your house down just because you quarrel with a sibling. Instead, you should sit down with that sibling and other family members and work out the differences and find a middle ground. Last night, Najib Razak who is UMNO’s President made the same call through his Facebook posting asking UMNO members to work differences out amicably. As members of a large family there is bound to be disagreements but this could be solved through discussions as UMNO members are brethren.

This is of utmost importance. UMNO has gone through many trials and tribulations from the days of Dato Onn Jaafar who left the party to form another back in the 1950s, to the attacks on UMNO by a nonagenarian of Kerala-descent that the party faces now. It has been the unity of UMNO members that has stopped all attempts to break it apart. The UMNO members have to realise this.

UMNO is not just being attacked by its trditional enemies and former members. It is also being threatened by colleagues from component parties for showing ‘support’ to the amendments to the Syariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act, 1965 sought by PAS President Haji Hadi Awang. It was last revised in 1988 and since its passing 51 years ago, not a single non-Muslim person has ever been charged in a Syariah court for not fasting during the month of Ramadhan nor has there been any case of a non-Muslim being charged in court for fornication. So why should it be any different now?

Talking about unity, someone caused disunity in ASEAN 19 years ago when he fought to have Myanmar admitted as a member. Yes, Myanmar became a member of ASEAN despite concerns regarding the military junta’s treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the oppression of minorities.

Mahathir said: “I fought hard for Myanmar to be admitted into ASEAN.” Yes, it was his idea. According to his now-bosom-buddy Lim Kit Siang in June 2005, it is Mahathir who must bear the greatest responsibility for the ASEAN admission of Myanmar in the 1997 ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur despite strong regional and international reservations and opposition. It was Mahathir who was a staunch supporter of ASEAN’s founding principle of non-interference, a principle that has allowed the group to develop economic ties without being pulled into each other’s domestic problems, that has caused this policy to be severely tested when Myanmar entered into ASEAN in July 1997.

In June of last year he tried to push the buck back to the present government. For those who said that Najib Razak has done nothing to help the Rohingyas, due to the ASEAN principle of non-interference, the most the government could do is to get Myanmar to be committed in dialogues with other neighbours on this issue. Despite that, this present government shipped 480 tonnes of food, neccessities to the Rohingyas in Myanmar in September 2012 through the port of Sittwe, Myanmar. And last year, Najib Razak announced that Malaysia will give assistance to the Rohingya boat people. The Royal Malaysian Navy led the effort to give assistance to the boat people.

Since Mahathir is jobless, can’t afford to hire cooks, can’t afford to buy flight tickets that he needed a private jet to take him everywhere, and his Vision 2020 to have his son as the Prime Minister is now in tatters, Mahathir should now organise a series of demonstrations in Yangon. I am pretty certain his DAP friends would be willing to finance his trip there.

Let us see if he would take up this challenge and prove that he is still a negarawan and not the negarasawan that he has turned into.

Pathetic. Go sit in a mosque and repent!

November 1, 2016

How Kutty Destroyed Melaka Kutty Will Destroy Malaysia

Mahathir named Soros as the person behind the currency attacks of 1997-98

“It was a well-coordinated efforts to destabilise Asean currencies for self-serving purposes,” said a joint-comunique by ASEAN Foreign Ministers in 1997 on the serious attacks by George Soros and his Open Society Institute on ASEAN currencies. Pribumi founder, Mahathir, who was the Prime Minister then said Soros was using the wealth under his control to punish Asean for welcoming Burma. “There is definite evidence that we cannot disclose,” he said. “There is no doubt he did it.”

Yesterday, minutes of meeting that happened on the 22nd June 2015 between Soros’s Open Society Foundation with local opposition-leaning organisations such as but not limited to the likes of the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research was made available by DC Leaks, the same organisation that exposed Hillary Clinton’s e-mails scandal.

Plans have been made to mobilise what has been named as the ‘Malaysia Programme – Portfolio Review Outcome Summary‘ to influence domestic politics in anticipation of the 14th General Elections that is expected to be held by May of 2018. The programme includes:

Greater mobilisation of the Muslim population as current involvement is not satisfactory.
Greater mobilisation of minority groups, women, Orang Asli and rural youth.
Engage with Election Commission, explore any possibility of policy reform, and identify clear policy targets.
Begin the process of leveraging the programmes’ existing networks in the country from this year onwards.
Develop a strong post-election mechanism to ensure documentation of any dispute can be quickly presented, unlike the 2013 election.

Other revelations:

OSF monitors and attempts to chart domestic politics since 2010, shortly after Datuk Seri Najib Razak assumed the office of prime minister.
The foundation had engaged in lobbying or “advocacy” in the US to shore up support for its efforts in Malaysia.
The most successful initiative was making “grants” or providing funds for friendly groups working for a common cause.
Following negative media exposure of Soros, the programme has proceeded in secret, with staff working quietly to minimise public exposure.
MalaysiaKini and its online broadcast service KiniTV received special allocations for election reporting, with ongoing support outside the election season.

img-20161031-wa003 — The three pages of the minutes that were leaked by DC Leaks

Merdeka Centre’s Ibrahim Suffian admitted that he was among the attendees along with OSF’s President, Christopher Stone. OSF has been providing “grants” to “local networks” and while no NGO was named, Mahathir-friendly BERSIH’s recently-arrested Chairman Maria Chin admitted to having received such grant.

The OSF does not only meddle in Malaysia but encourages “coloured” protests in Asia (where in Malaysia it is YELLOW) and also seeks to influence elections in the European Union. So, how can BERSIH be a free and fair movement when it is actually doing the bidding for a foreign megalomaniac?

It is odd but hardly surprising that Mahathir, who just last year said that street rallies were not the way to get what was desired and that this should be seen as a last resort, has announced that he has his own BERSIH 5 t-shirt and will be attending the rally. Mahathir, after all, is now shedding his Malay skin. The survival of the Malays and the cohesion of the multiracial society is no longer of any significance to him. All that matters is for him to fulfill his personal agenda and interests whatever it is that those may be. For that he is willing to work with his sworn enemies such as Lim Kit Siang, Mohammad Sabu, Anwar Ibrahim.

He even made friends with Malaysian-enemy-numero-uno George Soros himself! He buried the hatchet used to attack Soros even back in December 2006 saying, “You (Soros) personally are not involved but the devaluation was done by other traders and I accept that you are not involved.”

So was he wrong about Soros? Were all those suicides, broken marriages, depression caused by loss of income and closure of businesses back in 1997-98 not the result of Soros’s attacks on Asian currencies? Mahathir was cocksure it was Soros who did it! If he was wrong then, what else could he be wrong about?

Being funded by a megalomaniac to influence the outcome of elections is not a democratic process. Working for foreigners to form a government that kowtows to them is nothing short of treason. Societies will be destroyed, the spirit of our independence diluted, the way of life as we know it will no longer be there. Races will be pitted against one another. Resentment will grow to biblical proportions. Blood will be spilt and lives will be lost.

In the end, foreign troops will walk all over us.

Therefore in my book, both BERSIH and Mahathir are traitors.

Just as how one Kutty brought down the Melaka empire by opening the gates to foreign soldiers 505 years ago.

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015

TLDM Teruskan Operasi Mencari dan Menyelamat Pelarian Rohingya

Setelah menerima arahan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Tentera Laut DiRaja Malaysia mengerahkan lima buah aset permukaannya untuk memberi bantuan kepada pelarian Rohingya serta melakukan operasi mencari dan menyelamat selebih pelarian Rohingya yang masih berada di laut dan belum ditemui. Di dalam satu sidang akhbar yang telah diadakan petang tadi, Panglima Tentera Laut Laksamana Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar TLDM menegaskan bahawa kelima-lima aset tersebut yang terdiri dari KD Mahawangsa, KD Selangor, KD Laksamana Muhammad Amin KD Ledang dan KD Jerai telah diarahkan untuk memberi bantuan sewajarnya seperti yang telah diarahkan oleh Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN).

KD Jerai, kapal penyapu ranjau TLDM yang turut serta dalam misi bantuan kemanusiaan untuk pelarian Rohingya - gambar TLDM — KD Jerai, kapal penyapu ranjau TLDM yang turut serta dalam misi bantuan kemanusiaan untuk pelarian Rohingya – gambar TLDM

Krisis pelarian Rohingya telah menyaksikan kematian beratus jika bukan beribu pelarian akibat pelayaran yang mengambil masa lebih tiga minggu untuk tiba di perairan Thailand, Malaysia dan Indonesia. Hanya Malaysia dan Indonesia sahaja yang telah memberi persetujuan untuk memberi perlindungan sementara kepada 7,000 orang pelarian, sementara Thailand akan menghentikan penundaan semula ke laut bot-bot yang membawa para pelarian tersebut. Menteri Luar, Dato’ Sri Anifah Aman menegaskan para pelarian tersebut perlu dihantar pulang dan diberi penempatan tetap dalam masa setahun dengan bantuan kewangan daripada masyarakat antarabangsa.

Bagi TLDM dan kerajaan Malaysia, ini bukanlah julung kali ianya terlibat dalam misi bantuan kemanusiaan untuk kaum Rohingya. Pada bulan September 2012, kerajaan telah menggunakan kapal KD Indera Sakti untuk menghantar sebanyak 480 tan barangan keperluan seperti makanan, ubat-ubatan serta keperluan harian lain melalui pelabuhan Sittwe, Myanmar.

May 15, 2015

The Plight Of The Rohingyas: A Test Of Moral Conscience

As thousands of Rohingyas turn up in the waters off Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, thousands more die in the high seas never to find the refuge they sought. Myanmar meanwhile continues to turn a blind eye on the issue. These boat people are no longer in Myanmar waters, therefore they are no longer Myanmar’s problem. Hundreds have been slaughtered by unscrupulous human traffickers in “camps” in areas in Southern Thailand. Even the highly-celebrated champion of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, has admitted that she is a politician and “not a moral organisation or anything like that.” Disgusting is the only way I could describe her reaction, for a lack of better word.

I do not envy the position of the Malaysian government. Myanmar is part of the ASEAN brethren. Thousands of Rohingyas have already sought refuge in Malaysia in the past, and Malaysia has always been the country preferred by boat people to land at. After the fall of Saigon in April 1975, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees appeared on the shores of Malaysia. Those in their 50s might remember the plight of thousands of refugees on board the MV Hai Hong and how Bidong island, off Terengganu’s idyllic village of Merang, housed thousands of Vietnamese. Very few countries agreed to accept some of these refugees. Thousands more were stranded in Sungai Besi, forgotten if not by all, and became a problem for Malaysia up until the early 1990s.

Finally, Prime Minister Najib Razak came out with a statement of concern on his blog. And I wondered how would Malaysia start with helping these refugees, I found this on an acquaintance’s Twitter post:

May God bless Malaysia and continue to guide the leadership to continue to make the correct decisions.

Meanwhile, all other ASEAN nations should take a hardline stand on Myanmar and compel its government to put a stop to the persecution of the Rohingyas. This is to be a test on ASEAN’s members’ moral conscience, jointly and severally.